Hello, my name is Hannah Ostapjuk; I joined Spartans Academy of Krav Maga York in 2011. Many of you will recognise my name from the bottom of your emails, yep, that’s me, Secretary to Spartans Academy.
Recently, we’ve been writing about all the wonderful things our students have achieved and posting testimonials from our grateful members, we have a page dedicated to our instructors which tells you all about how they got into teaching Krav Maga and their previous self defence and martial arts experience. Now, I don’t ask someone to do something unless I’m prepared to do it myself, so here is why I chose to learn Krav Maga and how I ended up working for Spartans Academy.
As I said, I joined in 2011, this was after my mother encouraged me to learn something useful like how to defend myself (I had my heart set on learning Salsa; apparently that’s not what she meant by useful) so I typed “Self Defence York” into Google and Spartans Academy of Krav Maga were top of the search. I went along for a trial. I LOVED IT and signed up the very next week.
Like most people, I have had my fair share of knocks, physically and psychological bullying throughout my school days, struggled with self-esteem, hit an all-time low while studying for my degree, the list goes on a little and I won’t bore you with it all – I’m saving that for my “tell all book” when I’m a famous artist 😉
Anyway, after just two months training Krav Maga with Spartans Academy, I am out in Harrogate with my friends and some guy decides he’s going to pick me up and carry me off, out of nowhere and without thinking: I try to wrap my leg around his to prevent him from lifting me (that fails – as I am already in the air), then I remember, I heard Gheorghe Husar’s words in my head, “down and up”, my leg goes down and as hard as I can I bring it back up between this guy’s legs – he put me down – I turned quickly, hands up, I thought he was going to hit me and I remember thinking – I’ll hit him back! I would like to emphasise the fact that I am, in no way shape or form a violent person, I would never hit anyone but Krav Maga gave me the skills, the fighting spirit and the confidence to do something about a situation if I had to.
After this incident, I was pleased I was ok; I was cross I didn’t get the technique just right, Gheorghe Husar’s answer was, “are you ok, did you get away? Then what you did was right – you were able to do something.”
I had only attended a two hour class in York, once per week, over the course of two months (that’s only 16 hours training) and I had the skills and the confidence to do something. I was so grateful to Gheorghe and to Spartans Academy, I volunteered to help out and I began working in the office answering the email enquiries.
So now you know, when your email comes through to the Spartans Academy Office, your enquiry is being answered by someone who has been in your shoes (so to speak), I have been through things, I have practiced Krav Maga, I have paid for those lessons as a self employed full time artist with a low income (at that time), I have been able to use Krav Maga in a real life situation when I have needed to and so you will receive a reply from me that comes from a place of kindness and understanding and Spartans Academy will help you to achieve whatever it is you wish to achieve: confidence, fitness, learning those all important self defence skills, becoming a better decision maker, having a clearer mind, being less stressed!
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